I love R&B particularly of the 60's, and for me, Aretha is Queen. A good way to explore Aretha is to buy the 4 CD boxed set called "Queen of Soul". I find that many of Aretha's ballads, covers of other people's material, as well as her not-well-known material endure for me even more than her great hits such as "Respect", "Chain of Fools" and "Baby, I Love You", which are also on this 4 CD box set. There is a string of these type of songs on the first CD which starts with track 14 "You are My Sunshine" and ends with track 18 "Prove It". IMO, this is her best material. I also love the last track, "Ain't No Way", which is well known. This is a great boxed set which my only wish for improvement would be that it was of top sonic quality. Other than Aretha, among the highest echelon of R&B artists, I would have to second Ray Charles, who like Aretha, can sing in any style be it Jazz, Blues, Country or Gospel. Others that I find in that highest category are Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson and James Brown.
Soul Recommendations
I really enjoyed the Jazz Recommendations thread, and it is refreshing to get away from the religious debates on equipment. An area of music I want to explore more is soul, and am looking for some help. There is some cross-over between what I like and R&B, but I don't like much R&B released in the last 15 years or so, and there is also much cross-over into Blues. So what I do like in this area is - James Brown, Junior Wells and Al Green. I also like the old Stax stuff (I have the boxed set). But that amounts to my entire soul-tinged music collection - a dozen or so CDs. I don't care for Parliament, Barry White and so-called "sweet soul music" - eg. "Sexual Healing". I know my Jazz and Blues very well, and have very extensive collections there, but in crossing over the line into Soul I have found some great stuff by the artists I have mentioned, but feel I am only scratching the surface and want some pointers (pardon the pun) as to what to go for next. Maybe you will tell me that JB, Junior and Al are it, but hopefully there is more to explore.